


5 Times Shadow Kisses Manic That Don't Count (And One Time That Does)

by Mozie



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: An AU of an AU, M/M, just a lot of boys kissing, this is pretty niche
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:01:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25580257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mozie/pseuds/Mozie
Summary: The first time Shadow kisses Manic it's to prove a point.
Relationships: Manic the Hedgehog/Shadow the Hedgehog
Comments: 4
Kudos: 16





	5 Times Shadow Kisses Manic That Don't Count (And One Time That Does)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dogricky](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dogricky/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Time to Grow Up](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23549008) by [Mozie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mozie/pseuds/Mozie). 



> This is an au of my shadamy au fic, [Time To Grow Up](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23549008/chapters/56489029). It will probably make more sense if you've read the first few chapters of that. This is a gift for a friend who started shipping Shadow and Manic in that au, and while I've never shipped them before, I kinda do in this setting so I was happy to write this.  
> It's a human au.  
> Beta'd by the wonderful [Chi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/chininiris/pseuds/chininiris).

The first time Shadow kisses Manic it's to prove a point.

They've been hanging out at lunch nearly every day for just under two years. They don't really see each other outside of school, but that's okay.

Honestly, hanging out might be the wrong term. Manic has been talking to Shadow every day for nearly two years, but Shadow has only been replying to him for a little over a month. This new foray into actual friendship has been... interesting. It turns out actually talking to people is kind of hard, or maybe it's only hard when you've been crushing on them for the better part of a year.

Maybe it's only hard when you know all of their secrets but they barely know you.

Maybe it's only hard when you desperately want them to think you're cool.

To say Shadow is in trouble would be a gross understatement. Still, he's trying. He's trying to be the friend that Manic deserves, trying to be as confident as he was right up until the day he'd opened his damned mouth.

Still, things are going well now.

“Fuck you're uptight,” Manic comments, causing Shadow to start. Okay, so maybe 'going well' is about as accurate as 'hanging out' had been. Shadow stares in disbelief as Manic continues. “You've gotta loosen up, bro. And, you've gotta stop ignoring me.”

Shadow's face scrunches in disapproval. “I'm not ignoring you,” he protests. Then, after a beat, “and I'm not uptight.”

“Bruh, you are _so_ uptight.”

“Am not,” Shadow bristles, hating himself for immediately falling into a juvenile back and forth. Okay, so maybe he's not the most open person, and, yeah, he's serious and not much for spontaneity; but that doesn't make him _uptight_!

Manic laughs at Shadow's reaction, and Shadow is hyper aware of the dimple on Manic's left cheek. He finds the lack of symmetry oddly endearing. “Sure, sure. You're not uptight, and I don't dye my hair.” Shadow scowls at that, but Manic isn't done. “D'you wanna know what you sound like?” As a matter of fact, Shadow does not, but he knows that won't stop his friend so he just waits, disapproval etched into his features. Manic adopts a stiff posture, chin held high so that he can look down his nose at his companion. He flips an imaginary lock of hair and speaks, voice pitched up in a mocking manner: “Hi, I'm Shadow Hassan, and I'm _super_ fuckin' edgy. I _never_ do anything that isn't expected of me and I _always_ sit in the back of the classroom.”

Shadow just stares for a moment, because where does he even begin? _Edgy_?

“Okay, one, I do not sound like that,” he finally manages to point out. “My voice is _deeper_ than yours, not higher. And two, I do _so_ do unexpected things.”

Manic laughs again. “Name one time,” he challenges, and, well, shit.

Shadow hesitates. He _knows_ he does unexpected things, quite frequently even. He's always catching Rouge—his other friend—off guard. Only, none are coming to mind, and Manic's face screams triumph, and Shadow is _not_ one to lose if he can help it.

And so he does the first thing that comes to mind, the thing he's wanted to do for months and months. He surges forward and captures Manic's lips with his own. Manic starts at the contact, breaking the kiss, but that's alright. Shadow's point is proven. He levels Manic with a look that says 'I-told-you-so' and hopes his cheeks aren't actually as flushed as they feel.

After a moment Manic starts cackling. “Shit dude, you win.”

And just like that things are back to normal, and Shadow's not sure whether to be glad or disappointed that Manic isn't taking the kiss as anything other than Shadow making a point.

The second time Shadow kisses Manic is during a game of spin the bottle.

“We just need one more guy and then we can play,” Rouge says, and Shadow curses himself for letting her blackmail him like this. He'd fallen in the pool earlier and had to borrow other people's clothes, and now she's holding the outfit he'd come in ransom. Including his shoes. Abandoning his favourite sweater would be bad enough, but leaving behind his shoes? Out of the question.

“What are we playing?” a familiar voice asks, and Shadow is surprised to see Manic emerging from who-knows-where.

“Spin the bottle,” Amy, a younger student Shadow is tutoring in History, answers excitedly.

“You're still here?” Rouge asks at the same time, referring to the fact that the green-haired teen had shown up uninvited at some point claiming to be looking for his brother.

Manic shrugs. “There's free food.”

“For my friends,” Rouge points out, raising an eyebrow at him. He glances at the table they're at, still very much covered in food.

“Apparently you don't have enough friends, are you unpopular or something?”

Shadow watches as Rouge's eyes widen for a moment, then she cackles, and it's just as jarring as when Manic does it.

“Alright, you can play,” she decides.

Once the rest of the guests have finished leaving, and it's just the eight of them, Rouge leads everyone inside to one of the living rooms where they can all sit on a plush carpet while the cleaning staff deals with the aftermath of her party. They arrange themselves in a loose circle, sitting boy-girl-boy-girl as per the directions on the app they're using. Rouge goes to start, but Shadow reminds her that she'd promised him three chickens, so she recites some rules. Everyone gets three chickens, which are single use, meaning if you spin the person you used your last chicken on, you gotta kiss them. It's also agreed that the person doing the spinning should initiate the kiss, and that people probably shouldn't kiss for more than thirty seconds. Save that for your own time, and all that.

After the rules are recited, Cream—the small girl who lives in Amy's building—pipes up. “Ah, I'm only really playing because Amy is my ride home, but I've never really kissed anyone before, so, do we, ah, _have_ to kiss people on the lips?” She flushes as she asks it.

Rouge considers this for a moment. “No kissing Cream on the lips if you spin her,” she decides. “If she spins you it can be her call.”

Shadow frowns at that. “What about me? I'm not playing by choice either, and I also haven't kissed anyone.”

“Bruh,” Manic cuts in. “Excuse me? What am I, chopped liver?” There are nods around the circle, because _of course_ everyone saw or heard about Shadow kissing Manic in the cafeteria last month.

Shadow holds his head high and looks down his nose at Manic. “You flinched away the moment my lips touched yours, so no, it doesn't count.” It does, though. But, if pretending it doesn't will get him out of this....

Rouge speaks up before Manic can formulate a response. “Guys, it doesn't matter. Shadow, you're seventeen. Whether or not you've had a real kiss by now, that's on you. If you don't want to kiss someone, just use a chicken.”

Shadow glowers at her, but bites out a “fine.”

They start playing and Rouge goes first. She spins Sonic, who makes a joke out of it being his first time. Then Sonic spins Amy, and Amy spins Rouge. Then Rouge spins Shadow.

Under different circumstances Shadow may have allowed this. He's known Rouge forever, they're best friends, so she wouldn't be a _bad_ choice for a first (second) kiss, if Shadow were to put value in such things. However, she _did_ bully him into playing, so on principle....

“Pass,” Shadow says, dead-eyeing her. She falters for a moment before laughing.

“Seriously? You only get three chickens, and you're using one on me? Be reasonable.”

“I told you I don't want to play,” he reminds her.

“Well, yes, but-”

“Pass,” he repeats. She stares for a moment before laughing and shrugging.

“If you insist. Your turn, then.”

Shadow blinks at that. “I beg your pardon?”

She smiles very innocently at him. “Well you still have to spin. A chicken isn't a re-spin, just a denial of the current spin.”

Shadow's eye twitches. “I see,” he says, willing himself to remain calm. He'd wager everything he has that she made that rule just now to punish him, but he'd never be able to prove it. “You probably should have clarified that before.”

She hums softly in response before gesturing at the phone with its little bottle icon. He rolls his eyes, but complies. The bottle stops spinning and he passes without bothering to see who it landed on.

Manic laughs at that. “Brah, you don't know what you're missing,” he teases, and heat flares in Shadow's chest. Still, he levels Manic with a look.

“Pass,” he repeats.

“Oh come _on_! You caught me off guard last time, let me show you a _real_ kiss.”

Rouge scoffs. “Just respect the pass. If Shadow doesn't want to kiss party-crashers, that's his business.”

Shadow's torn between appreciating Rouge for coming to his rescue and the realization that it would _really_ rub her the wrong way if Shadow were to choose a 'party-crasher' as his first real kiss over her.

“Fine,” he says, and Manic freezes.

“What?”

Rather than repeat himself Shadow bridges the gap between them. Realization is dawning in Manic's eyes as their lips meet. Then Manic is taking control, pulling Shadow against himself until Shadow's mouth opens with a gasp, allowing Manic's tongue to slide in and brush against his own. Shadow's eyes flutter shut and his toes begin to curl as Manic kisses him. In the back of his mind he registers the sensation of Manic's tongue ring, but mostly he's focused on trying not to pop a boner in front of a bunch of classmates.

Everybody keeps playing when it's over, and Shadow hopes they can't see how dazed he is. He uses up his passes, and when he's out Amy passes for him since he doesn't want to play and she's not gonna make him. He doesn't spin Manic again, much to his disappointment.

Not that he wouldn't have begged a pass out of Manic on principle....

There's mistletoe involved the third time Shadow kisses Manic.

It's December now, two full months after the cafeteria kiss. Shadow hasn't been able to get it off his mind, has been even less able to get the spin the bottle kiss off his mind. Rouge had figured things out the moment Shadow's toes curled during that one, and has since made it her mission to get Shadow and Manic together. Hence her dragging him to the winter formal, as if wearing a suit will magically cure Shadow's inability to talk to his crush.

As if Manic won't also be all dressed up.

The thought sends Shadow's heart racing, because Rouge's logic that Shadow looks hot in a suit can probably be applied the other way, too. If suits are the magical hotness amplifiers that Rouge claims they are, then Shadow is screwed.

“I'm _gay_ and I'd date you if you asked wearing that,” Rouge had said when she'd seen Shadow's outfit, but instead of calming his nerves it had only made them worse. If a suit made him hot enough for her, what will a suit do for Manic? He can't handle hotter Manic, Manic is already hot wearing the impractical pants and ratty tees he wears outside school hours, and Shadow _hates_ those clothes. (Maybe hates is a strong word.)

Rouge must notice Shadow's unease, because she invites him to dance. It helps. Falling into a practised rhythm soothes his frantic heart in a way that words can't, but when he catches sight of Manic sauntering in and he fumbles his step. Manic is wearing a black suit, bedazzled with pink and turquoise sequins and gems, and it is the worst thing Shadow has ever seen in his entire life, but _damn_ if it doesn't look good on the guy. Rouge follows Shadow's gaze and snickers.

“Oh hon', you've got it _bad_ ,” she teases, and Shadow can't even bring himself to shoot her a withering look.

“Yeah,” he admits.

“Then what are you waiting for?” she asks, stepping away from Shadow and shooing him, despite their dance not being over. Shadow gives her a reproachful look for removing his excuse to stall, then makes his way to where Manic is raiding the snack table.

“Hey,” he greets.

“Hey,” Manic replies. He turns to Shadow and immediately does a double-take. “Damn, Shads. You clean up nicely,” he says, offering the cup he'd just filled to Shadow.

“Thanks,” Shadow replies automatically. Then, “You too.”

Manic grins at that. “Hell yeah I do.”

Shadow nods, out of things to say already. Which is honestly what he'd expected, no matter what Rouge had tried to tell him. Luckily Manic has always done enough talking for the two of them, and it doesn't take long for the teens to find themselves sitting on the steps outside hanging out the way they usually do, with Manic telling some wild story and Shadow responding at all the appropriate parts. Tonight it's the story of the time him and Sonic had tried to make snow in the deep freezer so they could have an indoor snowball fight. Shadow's heard this one already, but that's okay.

Eventually Rouge wanders out to find them. “Seriously? Why even come if you're just going to sit on the steps behind the gym?” she asks, eyebrows raised.

“Why not?” Manic challenges.

Rouge shrugs. “Doesn't seem very festive to me.”

Manic laughs at that. “Brah, we are, like, _so_ festive.”

“Oh really?” Rouge asks, and Shadow tenses as he catches the mischievous glint in her eye. Manic must not notice it, though, because he nods.

“Totally.”

Rouge scoffs and gestures above his head. “Prove it,” she says. Shadow follows the gesture up with his eyes.

A mistletoe hangs delicately above them. Shadow swallows, then looks at Manic.

For a moment Manic just stares, then he laughs. “Y'know, if you're so hard up for kisses, all you had to do was say something,” he teases, and Shadow feels a pang of disappointment. So much for asking Manic out.

Rouge rolls her eyes. “Ew, no thanks. You're not my type.”

Manic snorts. “I was referring to Shadow,” he says, and she visibly recoils.

Shadow splutters out a half formed protest, but it dies on his lips when Manic cackles.

“I'll take that as a no,” he manages between giggles. “So what _are_ you getting at?”

Shadow knows the answer even before Rouge gestures between him and Manic. He glances at Manic, who meets his gaze and shrugs.

Shadow swallows again, before leaning over and pressing a gentle kiss to the other teen's mouth. Gone is the forcefulness of their last two kisses. Shadow's tongue slides against Manic's lips, which part easily. His hand cups Manic's cheek, and for just a moment he can pretend that they're more than friends, that they came here together and are kissing because they want to and not because Rouge bullied them into it. Manic makes a small sound in the back of his throat, and Shadow finally pulls away before he forgets himself for real.

For a moment they just look at each other, lips parted and eyes half lidded, then Manic breaks whatever spell seems to hold them with an awkward laugh. “Looks like she's gone,” he says, gesturing to where Rouge had been.

“Oh, good,” Shadow responds absently. Manic gives him a considering look before launching back into his story as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

Shadow's drunk the fourth time he kisses Manic.

For Shadow's eighteenth birthday (January 14th), Rouge shows up at his house with a _ton_ of alcohol. When he asks her why she grins.

“This is your last chance to get embarrassingly and illegally drunk on your birthday. Next year it'll be legal, and where's the fun in that?”

He rolls his eyes, but, if it's just him and Rouge....

Five hours and far too many drinks later Rouge is asleep, and Shadow is bored. He _could_ wake Rouge up, but she gets really cranky when her sleep is interrupted. Instead he texts Manic to see if he's up, then puts his shoes on because it's only eleven and the text is more a formality than anything.

He's more than three quarters of the way there when Manic answers, asking if he's okay of all things. Of course Shadow's okay! He feels great, really. The alcohol has barely touched him, he's not even stumbling. That's how you gauge how drunk you are, right? Your ability to walk upright? Shadow's pretty sure it is, at any rate. The street lights are looking a little blurry, but that's fine. Everything is fine, the whole world has this lovely _glow_ to it. Manic's house comes into view, and Shadow remembers belatedly the strict curfew his friend has, which probably applies to friends showing up as well. He considers this conundrum for a moment, before making his way to the side of the house. He peers at the building. He's only been here twice, but he's pretty sure... there!

Shadow climbs into the rose bushes under Manic's window and only falls over three times before he manages to tap on the glass. Inside he sees Manic start, turn to the window, and start again.

“Shadow?” the slender teen asks, pushing the window open and reaching out a hand to help Shadow climb in. “What the hell?”

Shadow grins. For once the idea of asking Manic out seems do-able, easy even. “Predictable enough for you?” he asks, perching casually on the desk Manic was just at.

“I already know you're not as boring as you like to seem,” Manic huffs, retaking his seat. “You don't gotta keep proving yourself. So, what's up?”

Shadow shrugs. “I wanted to see you,” he answers honestly. He pushes a hand through his hair and adds, “I usually want to see you,” in case Manic doesn't get what he's trying to say.

Manic blinks owlishly at that. “You do?”

Shadow nods and slips off the desk, into Manic's lap. It's not quite the smooth move he'd hoped for, but Manic's breath hitches nonetheless. Before he can say anything Shadow cups his face in both hands and leans in to plant a (very sloppy) kiss. For a moment it's good, and nice. Manic's lips part under Shadow's, and when Shadow deepens the kiss, Manic lets him. Something must occur to Manic because he wrenches away.

“You're drunk,” he accuses. It isn't a question, so Shadow gives him a guilty smile.

“Maybe a little,” he admits before going in for another kiss. Manic's hands brace his shoulders and hold him back.

“You don't actually want this.”

Shadow frowns at that. “I kiss you all the time,” he points out.

Manic shakes his head. “I wouldn't call three times 'all the time'.”

“Sure it is. It's more than I kiss anyone else, at any rate,” Shadow points out, earning a laugh. He notices Manic's grip loosening. “It's my birthday,” he tries. Manic arches an eyebrow at that, so Shadow continues. “I've got no one to give me birthday kisses, and you probably don't have any other gifts for me. Two birds, one stone.”

Manic chews his lip, bounces a leg (which definitely isn't its own kind of distracting). “Okay,” he finally relents, and Shadow doesn't think the two syllables have ever sounded quite so nice together before this moment.

“Okay,” he echoes, before leaning in for another kiss, revelling in the way Manic's lips feel against his own. Chapped, but soft. He teases Manic's tongue with his own, trying to coax it into his mouth. He wants to taste Manic's piercing again, wants to enjoy the foreign sensation against his tongue and his teeth. Manic's fingers push into Shadow's hair, and Shadow lets out a soft hum of approval. Even when one of the rings Manic never seems to take off snags in a curl, Shadow enjoys it, enjoys the fact that Manic is _touching_ him. Shadow's own hands start roaming, trailing down Manic's neck and tracing the bumps and planes of his chest. He feels another piercing through Manic's shirt, and it sends a jolt of heat coiling through his gut.

Shadow had never considered piercings appealing before, but on Manic they seem... right. Shadow's fingers trace the piercing, and it causes Manic to groan. Encouraged, Shadow shifts his position so that he's straddling Manic's lap instead of sprawled across it, trails a hand down between them.

And then Shadow's on the floor, and Manic is blushing furiously, hands up in front of him. “Dude,” he hisses. “ _No_. You're drunk, I... I shouldn't... I'm sorry. You can stay the night if you like, but...,” Manic shoves a hand roughly through his hair, “but we can't continue, okay?”

Shadow swallows his disappointment and nods. Manic's clearly upset, and while he doesn't _get_ it, he doesn't want to make things worse.

In the morning Shadow does get it, and when Manic asks how he slept in a guarded voice he feigns confusion as to how he got there. The whole night is a blur anyways, so it's easy enough to pretend it never happened. Manic's shoulders slump (in relief?), and Shadow knows he's made the right call.

The fifth time Shadow kisses Manic is to shut someone up

Time passes and things with Manic start to go back to normal, as normal as anything involving the green-haired punk can truly be called. They sit together, they joke, Manic fills the silences, and Shadow pines. Rouge calls him an idiot whenever the topic of Manic is brought up, and Shadow suspects she's right. Still, he's not ready to confess, not yet. He's waiting for something, he just doesn't know what it is yet. It'll be soon, though. He can tell that much.

Two weeks after the birthday incident sees Shadow and Manic sitting together on the bus back from a grade-wide trip to the aquarium. At some point someone must realize that the faculty chaperone is on the other bus, because the kids in the back start shouting that “Manic is gay!” and that “Shadow must be gay too, if they're sitting together!”

Still, they're easy enough to tune out, so Manic keeps gushing about how cool the trip was and Shadow keeps correcting him on the things they _just_ learned. And then Shadow hears one of the kids in the back say “Hey, wouldn't it be funny if they actually were gay?”

He looks up at Manic, who meets his gaze with an incredulous look of his own, and for the first time Shadow gets what people mean when they say you can communicate things with a glance, because he looks into Manic's eyes, and he sees that they're thinking the exact same thing. “Would it?” Manic's eyes seem to challenge, and Shadow grins. For the second time in as many weeks, Shadow climbs into Manic's lap and initiates a kiss in a fluid motion. The laughter in the back of the bus halts as Shadow's tongue pushes into Manic's mouth. Silence descends as Manic's fingers tangle in Shadow's hair. It isn't long before Shadow's forgetting where he is and why he's doing this. All of his attention is on the teen beneath him.

Manic tastes bitter, like the coffee he'd had in lieu of an actual lunch, and Shadow wonders what Manic can taste on his own breath. Then Manic pulls away to start trailing kisses along his neck, and the only thing Shadow can wonder is how something touching his neck can feel so _good_.

When Manic sucks the skin of Shadow's neck between his teeth Shadow lets out a low whine and rolls his hips forward in an unconscious movement, and when Manic's lips finally return to Shadow's the kiss is practically devoured in Shadow's greed for _more_.

The bus comes to a stop and Shadow finally remembers himself. A wave of horror and panic wash over him, because _that was so undignified_ , but he's able to school his features into their usual indifference with minimal effort. Students start disembarking, and Shadow slides out of Manic's lap to join them.

Later on Manic laughs as he walks home with Shadow. “Bruh, that was _so good_. Did you _see_ their faces when they were getting off the bus? Priceless! Guess it wasn't that funny after all.” Shadow lets himself smile at the memory, even as anxiety churns his guts, but Manic must see through it. “You good, bro?”

Shadow lets out a weary sigh. He could lie, but he no longer sees the point in keeping Manic out. “I don't know,” he admits.

Manic frowns, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “What's up?” he asks, tone far warier than Shadow thinks the topic warrants.

“I should't have kissed you like that,” he answers honestly. He's not prepared for Manic to stop walking when he says it, not prepared for the disappointed look that flashes across the other teen's face so fast he could easily write it off as his imagination.

Finally, Manic laughs, and Shadow realizes that Manic might be even better than him at masking his true emotions. “Worried that they'll tell everyone and the whole school will think we're dating by the end of the week?” he teases, seeming every inch the happy, unflappable guy Shadow has come to know.

But he's not happy. The idea of Shadow regretting kissing him has deeply upset him. Shadow's heart hammers in his chest at the realization.

Swallowing his nerves, Shadow arches an eyebrow in his favourite condescending expression. “Who cares about that?” he asks, all thoughts of discomfort and shame forgotten.

Manic blinks. “Then, why?”

Shadow levels Manic with his best 'you are an idiot' look, resists the urge to wipe his sweaty palms off on his sweater. “The bus ride was too short, we got interrupted,” he explains, as if to a particularly dimwitted child. Then he turns and resumes his walk home, hopes that he seems as cool as he intends, instead of as silly as he feels.

“Bro, wait up!” Manic calls some moments later, sprinting to catch up. Shadow stops and half-turns to watch as he waits. Once caught up, Manic doubles over to catch his breath. When the panting has stopped, he straightens with a grin, looking entirely too pleased with himself. “You like me,” he says, and Shadow rolls his eyes.

“Obviously.”

There are no excuses the first time Manic kisses Shadow.

**Author's Note:**

> Fun fact! When I was in highschool I used to get called a lesbian everyday on the busride home. Then one day I was riding with a friend and the boys were jeering, then one of them was like "Hey wouldn't is be funny if she actually was a lesbian?"  
> Anyways I based part of this fic on that glorious moment. Turns out it wasn't actually that funny, and they literally never jeered at me again.


End file.
